I finally got a new computer at home, after experiencing some Bill Perry-esque social shame about my unattractive older computer. I love the new one, but now, my lunky, slow workplace computer is all the more aggravating by comparison. Sometimes, it takes so long to map the drives when I turn it on in the morning, it’s like it’s made out of paper clips and powered by hamsters.
According to this wire story, a software company in Florida is instituting a Bring Your Own Computer plan, where employees are given $2,100 to buy whatever computer they like. In preparation for talking about workplace computers, we’d love to hear your workplace computer woes. If you use a computer at work, what’s it like? Does it make a funny whirring noise all the time? Are you forced to use a browser you don’t like? Leave your workplace computer woes here. Thanks!
My university, whose name rhymes with Spleen’s, are so cheap, that outside of the science departments, you have to buy your own computers. The up side, of course, is that my computer is exactly as I want it and it’s spiffy and fast and customized. The down side is that as the resident geek-girl of my department, I am the “Computer Rep”, a snazzy title which simply means I fix everybody else’s computers in the department, because our university’s Information Technology Services Department charges for that. So I work with computers still running Windows 95, OS9 and various other clunky operating systems, as well as educate my esteemed colleagues not to click on links in email, not to open attachements that were unsollicited, not to install software proposed by pop-ups and how to set their printer to print in black and white by default. Over the phone.
That Florida company idea sounds great, but it won’t fly in most corporate environments where they feel it is important to standardize everything for the sake of I.T. stability.
My work computer woes are pretty minor, actually. Mostly involving software, not hardware. (I.e., Lotus Notes is awful. Microsoft Outlook is annoying. Anything from Oracle seems perpetually badly implemented. The list goes on.)
But here’s an odd one: at a former job, which was (like most corporations) a totally Windows XP environment, I would occasionally travel to the head office. There were “floater” computers on-site, so I didn’t have to bring a portable. But sometimes I brought my personal Apple iBook just because I felt like it. According to policy, I was not allowed to plug it into the corporate network because it was considered a “rogue machine” due to its not having the full cadre of Microsoft Windows security stuff on it.
Regardless, I plugged it in a few times and was able to get on the web plus browse a number of the server drives and directories WITHOUT having to even log in. That was straight from the Ethernet wire!
I would love to be able to have my own gear at work – not only computers, but also other networked devices like handhelds and cell phone. The reality of that happening are pretty slim. And I can understand the benefits of standardization in large environments.
The Citirx model will work for them because it plays right into their business model. The service they provide to organizations is the exact technology that empowers companies to do what Citrix are doing internally.
At one employers I was given a computer which was rack-mounted. I literally had to roll this thing around to do my work. To top it off – the software was custom and still being written and debugged as I was using it. The upside, according to the I.T. people, is that it was Microsoft based and compatible with the Novell Server they had. The system was costing around $8,000 each.
I brought in an old Mac PowerBook (PB100!) with an off-the-shelf piece of software and plugged it straight in after installing a Novell extension.
They sent back the three rack systems and bought us PowerBooks. Total savings was over $18,000!
Now a comment. Companies which embrace a cross-platform (at the least) or open source model (at the best) will have a huge competitive edge. Subscribing to a closed proprietary system will kill them in the long run. I shudder to think I have information at a company which relies on Vista to protect it.
@dhuibh,
I probably shouldn’t laugh, but that image of the rack-mounted computer is hilarious!
When I was setting up as a work from home agent for a telco that rhymes with dodgers about a year ago, I was given a massive HP Compaq tower with no HDD but rather using a CD to boot to a VPN to launch a terminal server session, only to be given a thin client about six months later as I was preparing to leave the company. I almost thought the plan would’ve been better thought out, but lo and behold, the setup was one of the worst I’d dealt with, at least when I started the job.
@Ed Hawco.
It’s not just because of IT Stability. It’s a legitimate security concern. Who know what virus, spyware, key-loggers, etc you computer at home has picked up that would you be exposing everyone in the office to.
I’m self employed, so I get to pick the computers my business uses. I’m one of those “switchers”. I made the leap on Dec 27th, 2003 (tax advantages!) and haven’t looked back.
The idea of letting the employees pick their own computers is brilliant – it gives them some sense of freedom to use whatever computer and OS they need, as most people just use computers for email, web, word processing, spreadsheets and solitaire.
Go ahead and laugh. One more for you then…
Same company, different department, a few years earlier (1990). The department had yet to even get computers for the staff! but then… they arrived.
We tore open the boxes like it was Christmas. The computers turned out to be PC XT boxes with those green phosphorus monitors. The XT was discontinued three years prior to us getting them! Even the clock was on a massive card that had to be plugged in and programmed via DOS 2.0.
I went back home and continued to work on my Mac IIci. (geez, I’m feeling old)
Well, I work in a high tech, constantly evolving workplace responsible for the public’s safety (air traffic services) and, put it this way: Every one of the 6 computers we have in our tower all have “Y2K Compliant” stickers on them, provided by IT, to signify that they’ve been updated. It’s kind of funny, but at least they all work, most of the time.
The place I work finally has reasonable computers running windows xp, but up until 2003 (yes 2003) we had dummy terminals that had the black background and green letters. Every single one of them had an introductory screen of print permanently burnt into them. and for some bizarre reason the left and right arrow keys were reversed. The left moved right,and the right moved left. Weird.
the computers at my university are all top-notch macs and they work great. but for some reason the main drive has a tendency to crash…which is no fun for journalism students working with deadlines
I tend not to notice because I mostly use them as graphical terminals (a descendant of zahk’s text terminals), connected to more interesting systems hundreds of miles away.
I’m the sole employee in a remote office so I basically get full reign of the system as long as I use the hardware that is provided, which is reasonably new. The only requirements are that I have a web browser, an email program, an IM program, and the ability to connect to a Terminal Services machine.
I’m starting to feel way better about my work computer!
@dhuibh @Anson @zahk — I just emailed to ask you to phone in your comments for the next episode of Spark. Thanks!
I work with computers all day long. I refuse to supply my own computer for the job, even though it would make my life easier. I see no reason why I should out of pocket a computer to do work for a company when I am not compensated for my equipment. The computers I work with for the most part are new vista machines, and I work with a variety of machines that have been in place for a long time. The older computers I don’t like too much as too many people eat at the keyboard, and leaves a rather unsanitary condition.
I’m self employed so I buy my own work computers. My computers are likely around the same era as the computer you use at work, as I don’t see the point of buying a new computer every few years (some I have running here are more than 8 years old). The solution for me is to use Linux where I can configure it to only have the software I need on it, and not the unnecessary bloat that most Mac or Windows computers come with these days. While Microsoft may be a software company (Apple is clearly a hardware company), they still help to drive hardware purchases which drives further software purchases. The whole business model encourages forced obsolescence of perfectly fine hardware.
@Gene Moreau
Companies only gain the type of security you are talking about if they lock down the machines such that the operator isn’t able to install any of their own software. Far too few companies do that. Once the platform is open to the operator to install software, then there are benefits to a heterogeneous environment given malware is platform specific. Being heterogeneous also encourages companies to avoid some of the “secret sauce” style “security by obscurity” (false security), and encourages open and peer reviewed security measures.
I’m a bit late to this discussion, but I thought I would throw in my 2c anyway.
I was purchased a brand-new HP laptop computer for my job this summer, and it caused me no end of hassle. I had problems with everything from installing printers and my scanner to random crashes every time I tried to use the built-in webcam or plug other devices into usb drives. I don’t do anything on that machine now without saving every time I finish a step in a project.
I’m planning on purchasing a new Mac sometime in the next three months, and I’m going to see about using it as my work computer as well as my personal machine. In the five years I’ve owned my current Mac, it hasn’t given me anywhere near the trouble that the new laptop did. And now that Macs can dual boot with windows, there’s no reason not to consider one for the office.
(also, hi Anson!
I heard you on the radio this morning, hope you are doing well!)
Wow! I can only dream of buying my own computer for work. I’ve been battling with the IT department at my company for a couple of months now to get a new computer. My current computer is at least 6 years old. While it runs XP, it grinds. All of our programs are on the server, so it shouldn’t matter what computer gets plugged in, as long as it is imaged to connect to our network (which is the case for all of our employees with laptops. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them). The programs I need to run are very memory intensive and need current computers. Oh what I could do with $2100 and free reign to buy my dream computer! I have a couple of lovely Macs at home that I use for personal and work use – I would love to be able to have just one of them as my work computer!